Lindsay Pletsch-Parr’s three-year-old nephew recently suffered a head injury at the Embro arena, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Ingersoll.

He was frightened. There were flashing lights, strange equipment and people he didn’t know.

But first responders gave him a teddy bear named Band-Aid, and that made all the difference.

“It became a very positive experience for him,” said Pletsch-Parr.

Last week, she and fellow members of the Stratford Women’s Institute donated dozens of stuffed animals and books to the Stratford Fire Department for the next time a young child needs that same kind of comfort during a difficult time.

“You never know when an emergency can happen, and hopefully this will help,” said Pletsch-Parr, president of the local Women’s Institute branch, motioning to several bags filled with colourful, furry creatures and kid-friendly books at the Erie Street fire hall.

“It makes a traumatic event a lot less traumatic,” said Rod MacDonald, the Stratford Fire department’s fire investigator and public educator.

The “care packages” are not just helpful when the child is injured.

“Seventy percent of our calls are medical,” noted MacDonald, “so there are cases when we might be treating a parent, and we might be able to calm their kids down with a book or a teddy bear.”

It’s a little thing, but it can have a big impact, he suggested.

“Other than the equipment that we use to help people in car accidents or at a medical call or even after a fire call, the caring part of it – when you can make somebody smile or take their minds off the bad time they’re having – that goes a long way toward the healing process,” said MacDonald.

The fire department keeps a stash of stuffed animals on both of its pumper trucks, as well as on its medical response vehicle.

The bears and books donated last week will likely last until the end of the summer before they need to be replenished.

Pletsch-Parr said the donation by the local Women’s Institute chapter was to help celebrate the 120th year of the Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario, and is in keeping with its vision of women working together for safe, healthy communities.